Peaceful and Personalized Tasting Experience at Bouchaine Vineyards

Bouchaine’s winery, tasting room, and hospitality center are located in Carneros, a southern portion of Napa Valley where traffic and crowds are nearly non-existent.

founded in 1981 by Tatiana and Gerret Copeland, Bouchaine is one of the oldest, continuously family-owned properties within Carneros, where the San Pablo Bay breezes allow cool climate varietals to flourish.

A new 5,000 square foot Visitor Center is the ideal spot in which to sample winemaker and general manager Chris Kajani’s vibrant, exciting wines that exude Burgundian elegance, California exuberance, and Carneros terroir.

WINE

The Bouchaine winemaking team believes that fine wine starts in the vineyard; they are committed to growing and harvesting the highest quality fruit possible. In addition to their own 104 acre estate vineyard, Bouchaine has long-term relationships with a few renowned Napa vineyards from which it sources.

Wild yeast fermentation, minimal extraction, and non-intervention winemaking practices allow the vines to speak for themselves.

Bouchaine produces several wines that are distributed nationally (such as the popular Bouchaine Estate Pinot Noir and Bouchaine Estate Chardonnay) and many can be found within select markets nationwide.

Some of the most special bottlings are found only at the winery or on their website, such as Brut Rosé, Unoaked Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Reserve Chardonnay, and Terraces Pinot Noir, each made entirely from the Bouchaine Carneros estate. 

BOUCHAINE HOSPITALITY

Bouchaine offers one of wine country’s most unique visitor experiences: Falconry in the Garden.

Master Falconer Rebecca Rosen of Authentic Abatement demonstrates for small groups the art of falconry as pest management, Friday-Sunday, 10 a.m. ($75/pp, includes a glass of wine) 

Bouchaine’s Hospitality Center Terrace, surrounded by two soothing water features, landscaped gardens, comfortable sofas and armchairs, and the warm glow of firepits, welcomes guests to an elevated, seated tasting with a splash of Vin Gris, followed by a flight of five wines of the guest’s choice.

($75/pp) per person. And the Garden Experience invites guests to bring their own picnics for al fresco dining while the winery provides a wine key, water, two logo crystal wine tumblers, and a bottle each of Bouchaine’s Estate Pinot Noir and Estate Chardonnay. ($150 for groups of 6 or fewer).

SUSTAINABILITY

Noted as the first “Fish Friendly Farming” certified vineyard in Napa Valley, Bouchaine is also Napa Green land and winery certified. Bouchaine uses cover crops such as bell beans, clover, oats, barley, peas, vetch, and rye to prevent soil erosion and to add organic matter that sustains the healthy balance of microbes and improving moisture retention.

The winery encourages beneficial insects to thrive in the vineyard and outcompete other pests.

Kajani and her team have established natural waterways to maximize conservation by improving natural water flow (in years when the estate sees sufficient winter rains, the team is able to dry farm), and she has also introduced composting, chicken manure, and fish emulsion as integral parts of the farm’s soil plan.

An integrated pest management program consists of bird boxes and raptor perches stationed throughout the vineyards, attracting bluebirds and owls which feed on pest populations and hawks which mitigate gopher damage.